I've got another still larger Beastie in sections on my work table and the shroom from last week's picture about ready to go in the bisque kiln (slated for Tu-Th). I have finally started to break past the size limit to which I've confined my handbuilt Beasties thus far. However, I run in to a problem with the more expansive, expressive critters - they are too horizontal/heavy to join without breaking when they are at the proper moisture level to be joined. I deal with that issue in current piece by just building the cap and stalk separately and not joining them; I plan to glaze them together, if I join them physically at all. This works to a degree, but now I have to make sure the pieces will a) fit together when dry, b) fit together without overstressing the inside of the cap, c) not fit too loosely that they will break on each other or look loose.

Some plans to help with making successful larger forms:

---buttressing the interstitial space in the double-walled caps

--- a more exaggerated double wall on the caps, but one that swoops from the outer edge down and then up into the cap to give a visual fullness AND make a slot for the stalk to fit into.

For the stalk, I am currently taking super-thin slabs and folding them into/onto/over themselves and each other, so that they form deep ridges and bumps.  I'm fond of the way this works on the stalk tops (stems) but it's not translating well where it spreads out at the bottom, so I'm thinking that another approach might involve a separately built center stalk section and then threading/layering coils off of it.

On another note, I love the Loafer's Glory clay body.

No pictures this week.

~Lucy